23 April 2013 9:05 PM

An unsung hero of the Lawrence family's quest for justice

Sometimes it is difficult to
find words which adequately describe the courage and determination shown by
Stephen Lawrence’s truly remarkable parents, Doreen and Neville.

Although now divorced – the
strain of Stephen’s racist murder contributing to the breakdown of their
marriage in 1999 – they were united in their message this week on the 20th
anniversary of his stabbing in Eltham, South-east London.

In separate interviews, they
urged the police to do all they can to catch the rest of Stephen’s killers. Two
of them, Gary Dobson and David Norris, were jailed for life last year - but
three more remain at large.

As Mr Lawrence tended Stephen’s
grave in Jamaica on Monday, his former wife was telling a memorial service in
London about the devastating impact that Stephen’s murder still has on their
family. How she, her surviving son Stuart and daughter Georgina, still feel
raw, 20 years on.

I was honoured to be invited
by Mrs Lawrence to attend the service at St Martins-in-the-Field near Trafalgar
Square.

When you have covered a story
for more than 16 years, as I have done with Stephen’s murder, there is a danger
you will become desensitised to the horror of what originally happened.

Sitting in the church for 40
minutes before the service started gave me time to imagine what it would be
like if one of my own family was killed simply because of the colour of their
skin.

I was also able to reflect on
the early days of the Daily Mail’s Stephen Lawrence campaign, and my mind
turned to a retired senior police officer who played a key role in helping the
Lawrence family achieve what they call ‘partial justice’.

His name is Brian Mackenzie,
who in 1997 was president of the Police Superintendents Association of England
and Wales.

In the summer of that year, I
had a working lunch with Mr Mackenzie – whatever would Lord Justice Leveson
have made of that? - and we discussed his keynote speech at the superintendents’
forthcoming annual conference.

He mentioned that he was
considering calling for a change in the double jeopardy laws, which at the time
prevented a person acquitted of murder standing trial again. His interest in
the issue had been ignited by a case of a ‘wrongful acquittal’ in the
North-East.

I, too, believed it was time
for the double jeopardy laws to be ditched. I had previously covered a court
case in Holland of a British man who had been controversially acquitted of his
wife’s murder.

But after the verdict, the
Dutch prosecution team was not too downbeat.

They told me that if new
evidence came to light, they could appeal against the verdict. A few years
later it did, and the man was convicted of murder.

At the time of my lunch with
Mr Mackenzie, the Daily Mail’s Stephen Lawrence campaign was still in its early
stages.

Following the Lawrences’
earlier failed private prosecution of the five prime suspects and an inquest
which ruled Stephen had been killed by a gang of white racists, our landmark
‘Murderers’ front page had raised the profile of the case again, and prompted
Home Secretary Jack Straw to order a public inquiry.

Mr Mackenzie and I discussed
Stephen’s murder at length and at my request, he agreed to mention it in
relation to his reference to the double jeopardy issue. Furthermore, he said he
would use a copy of our ‘Murderers’ front page as a back drop during his
conference address.

On September 15 1997, I trailed extracts from a draft copy of his speech
in the Mail, in which he said: 'We all deplore miscarriages of justice and all
know of the celebrated cases over the last few years.

'But a miscarriage also occurs every time a guilty person is acquitted and,
unlike the wrongful conviction, it cannot be put right under the law as it
stands now. We all saw the acquittal of the white youths tried for the racist
murder of the black youth Stephen Lawrence in April last year.

'Acquitted mainly because witnesses, for whatever reason, failed to testify.’

We ran an editorial, supporting the call for a change in the law.

But two days later, after Mr Mackenzie’s conference address, Mr Straw ruled out
the possibility of the double jeopardy laws being over-turned, saying they were
a ‘fundamental part’ of the criminal justice system.

I have a clear recollection of the Home Secretary being dismissive of
the idea when I put Mr Mackenzie’s suggestion to him.

He told me: 'If there has been a fair trial where all the evidence has
been properly adduced and someone has been acquitted, it would be oppressive
beyond belief to require that individual to be prosecuted a second or third
time.'

Mr Mackenzie said Mr Straw’s response was ‘very disappointing’ but said the
Police Superintendents Association would continue to campaign on the issue. He
said that if new DNA evidence emerges which discredits the original verdict,
the authorities should have the right to appeal.

He was true to his word and his association made powerful submissions on
the issue to the Macpherson Inquiry into Stephen’s death, which called for the
double jeopardy laws to be reformed in its 1999 report.

Years later the recommendation became law, allowing Gary Dobson – one of
the Lawrence suspects previously acquitted of murder during the ill-fated
private prosecution – to be tried again after a DNA breakthrough. He was
convicted in January last year.

Brian Mackenzie
was a pioneering policeman. Under his leadership, the Police Superintendents
Association was a respected, influential voice which also successfully lobbied
for an end to a suspect’s right to silence and the setting up of the Sex
Offenders’ Register.

After his retirement, his work was
rewarded with a peerage and he is now known as Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate.

He was not at Stephen’s
memorial service on Monday. He would not have expected to be.

But Lord Mackenzie and the
class of 1997-1999 at the Police Superintendents Association can rightfully
claim to have made a positive contribution to the Lawrence family’s marathon
quest for justice – which must go on.

STEPHEN WRIGHT

Stephen Wright is the Daily Mail's multi-award-winning Associate News Editor, who since 1997 has spearheaded the paper’s Stephen Lawrence campaign.

He has covered some of the country’s most notorious crimes, including the trial of Rosemary West, the Harold Shipman murders, the shooting of Jill Dando, the Soham killings and the July 2005 terror attacks. He reported from New York on the 9/11 atrocities.

His scoops have included the forensic breakthroughs in the Lawrence and Rachel Nickell murder inquiries, the Ian Blair telephone bugging scandal and his revelation that cricket coach Bob Woolmer died of natural causes – not murder.

He also led the way with a series of revelations about the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, the controversial collapse of the trial of royal butler Paul Burrell and the Met’s ill-fated Cash for Honours inquiry.

Wright, formerly Crime Editor of the Daily Mail, won plaudits for his exclusive reports exposing the corrupt Met commander Ali Dizaei, but has also been praised for his sensitive dealings with high-profile victims of crime.

His blog will give you a fascinating insight into past and present crimes stories, the inside track on long-running Mail investigations and campaigns, as well as commentary on major developing stories.